MR SPENCE HISTORY
Why did war break out in 1914?
• What were the underlying causes of the War?
• How did war become more likely between 1907 and 1914?
• How did the assassination of Franz Ferdinand bring about a European conflict?​
The period between the 1815 Congress of Vienna following the Napoleonic Wars and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 is often referred to as 'Europe's century of peace.' This term is not entirely accurate as conflicts did occur frequently. However, they remained limited in scope (the Crimean War), were over quickly (Prussia's war with its neighbours), or involved lesser powers against a larger one (the Balkan Wars). The 'concert of Europe,' established in 1815 aimed to preserve the existing political and social structures, remained largely intact in 1914. However, it came under increasing pressure in the last half of the nineteenth century, which will be the focus of this first unit.
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Europe remained mainly under the control of interrelated royal families. Continent-wide revolutions in 1848 and 1849 weakened the legitimacy of these regimes, but they mostly clung to power. But the ideas from these revolutions remained, with increasing literacy allowing ideas of nationalism, anarchism, socialism, liberal democracy and secularism to permeate into the general public's consciousness. Increasingly, regimes need to placate public opinion to maintain their legitimacy. As nationalism was the most palatable modern movement to the existing social order, most nations practised a more jingoistic foreign policy, upsetting the existing order.
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The other major change was the emergence of Germany as Europe's largest industrial and military power. In the 1860s, the Prussian Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, practising a new form of diplomacy called Realpolitik, brought the 31 independent German states into a new German Empire. Bismarck offered economic inducements to join and defeated the foreign opponents Austria, Denmark and France. With its newly reformed military, large population, and rapidly expanding industry, Germany no longer needed to abide by the concert of Europe. While Bismarck was content with the German state he had created, many nationalists believed it was only the beginning of a much larger empire.
As the alliances divided Europe into two armed blocs, the belligerents began planning how to win in a future war. Each country (aside from Britain) devised a way to quickly win if hostilities broke out, although the lack of coordination with their allies made most unfeasible. The most famous of all of these was the German Schlieffen Plan, which would be later used as evidence when proportioning guilt to Germany after the war. We will go over why the Schlieffen Plan made the war more likely, along with the flaws in this and all the other plans. However, there are some historians who believe the Schlieffen Plan never existed and that it was a post-war fabrication to make Germany appear extremely aggressive.
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There were also a series of events that made war more likely. There were two crises between Germany and France over Morocco, where Britain backed its channel neighbour. Britain increasingly viewed Germany as a potential adversary as they engaged in an expensive naval building war. Britain won, but Germany had been demonised by the press, which turned British public opinion into viewing them as a threat. The main area that threatened to trigger a worldwide war was the Balkan Peninsula. As the Ottoman Empire threatened to collapse, there were a series of disputes about who would replace them as the dominant regional power between Austro-Hungary and Serbia. Russia backed Serbia but always pulled back to avoid a Europe-wide conflict. Austro-Hungary's mistake was to believe that they would always do the same.
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